March 09, 2013
March Madness
March 09, 2013Last night I went to a charity event for a chocolate and cupcake tasting party to benefit Lend-A-Hand India, a great charity offering aid t...
Last night I went to a charity event for a chocolate and cupcake tasting party to benefit Lend-A-Hand India, a great charity offering aid to thousands in need in India. I was a cupcake vendor there, among many others with great displays and tasty desserts. I was the only vegan vendor, proudly representing with some of my most popular flavors! Everyone seemed to really like them, usually even before finding out their veganhood.
These are my Irish Barfight Cupcakes, seemingly the biggest hit of the night! They are a vanilla cake filled with a whiskey butterscotch and topped with a vanilla buttercream and strawberry dip-top and mini chips! Try reciting that about 50 times in 3 hours.
My table! The event was at Pranna, a fancy lounge on Madison Ave, and they gave me these sweet platters to put my cupcakes on. This amateur was prepared to serve them out of my boxes. To be fair my boxes are like, really cute.
About mid-way through the night, the promoter came by and sprinkled a million fake rose petals all over my table. The mood quickly changed from good-hearted-charitable event to sexy post-Valentines-chocolate-and-strawberry-champagne-adults-only after that. The mood lighting made everyone want a bubble bath. We made all the children cover their virgin eyes and eat their cupcakes blindfolded. Just kidding... kind of.
Top row are the infamous chocolate stout cupcakes, my personal favorite, and below are raspberry champagne. I may have accidentally let a 3-year-old grab one off my table and shove in into her face. It all happened so fast. I mean there's not that much champagne in there... She'll be fine... Kid's gotta grow up someday... Right?
See? I told you my boxes were cute!
A faithful remaining few...
Okay, so I had to take the subway into the city, you know, because I'm a normal person and not a rich young professional with their own personal limo driver or fist-fulls of cash ready to stuff under a cab driver's hat to take me through the traffic-ridden-and-dreadful Holland Tunnel and into midtown Manhattan and deliver me and my cupcakes entirely intact. So my lovely friend Matthew and I ever-so-carefully carried these on the subway and the few blocks through the snow to the event. They were almost all fine... Except the red velvet ones. At one point during the commute the liner slipped up and across and swiftly decapitated my cupcakes from their frosted heads. We did our best to fix them. But as you can see, it wasn't exactly pretty. We sort of slipped some towards the back of our platters as the evening drew on, hoping no one would notice. Thankfully, no one did, and every last ugly cupcake was devoured!
Certainly not my most fabulous shot, but you all get the spirit of it...
Also, earlier this week I made some cupcakes for a friend who's boyfriend was coming home from a long trip abroad and she wanted to surprise him with "welcome home cupcakes." How cute is that! We decided on an off-menu flavor that came out totally amazing and beautiful-- Chocolate Covered Strawberry! I'll make them a fixture on the menu soon.
It's a chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache topped with a chocolate buttercream, a halved fresh organic strawberry and chocolate coconut drizzle!
I also am here to share the 2nd installment of the macaroni pie series! This is my American Chop Suey Pie! It's a lentil bolognese sauce and elbow noodles packed in a pie with a roasted zucchini crust topped with breadcrumbs! Plus when you slice it, it looks pretty cool.
Now that is some pasta pie. Ahuh, pretty cool, I know. Alas, this post is too long to include the recipe. Stay tuned for the 3rd installment of the pasta-pie-saga, and one last St. Patrick's Day recipe!
Also someone at the event told me I should let you all know to follow me on Instagram @kzcakes! I'm not much of a social media person, but dozens of pictures of cupcakes and vegan food never hurt anyone. I'll leave you with that solid truth.
Until next time, KZ out.